San Diego Jewish Academy Hosting County-Wide Science Competition

The first 2014-15 Rendezvous Engineering Mathematics Science (REMS) Academic Competition will be held November 5, 2014 at San Diego Jewish Academy and will include students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.

REMS competitions are a series of Jeopardy-like events that happen throughout the school year. They are meant to be fun for students, parents, teachers and observers. Events are designed to create excitement and interest in all fields of science, engineering and mathematics.

Designed, in part, after the High School Academic League Competition, the lower school format, which allows the student team to work together, pool knowledge, and process information, is meant to duplicate what takes place in research, industry and higher levels of education. The amount of knowledge grows and no one person knows everything. Teams working together and combining skills and knowledge can achieve what a single individual cannot.

Student teams discuss and try to figure out answers. The questions challenge teams to investigate and learn more information. Observers will be able to view the questions as the students compete. Hopefully observers will also be challenged and can discuss the questions and topics later.

REMS questions emphasize engineering, mathematics and science topics. The range of information covered by these topics is broad in scope and may include historical, geographical and cultural topics as well as definite content knowledge.

A match will have a series of questions on, but not limited to, the following topics: Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Science, Astronomy, Botany, Human body/medical, Math, and Geography.

San Diego Jewish Academy became involved with REMS as part of their K-12 STEM program.

“Our kids first took part in the competition last year,” said Irene Lerner, SDJA’s Lower School Science and STEM Specialist. “The competition included more than 20 teams from local elementary schools.
After a hugely successful REMS experience last year, we have even more of our students participating this year.”

There will be a live video feed of the event projected to another room for parent spectators and observers. The competition is expected to attract well over 200 students from across San Diego County.

Check-in begins at 5:30 pm and the competition starts at 6:00 pm.

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About SDJA’s STEM Program:
STEM at SDJA started at the high school level and was founded and led by Dr. Jane Willoughby. This year, in accordance with SDJA’s Strategic Plan – A Vision of 2020, STEM learning opportunities have been extended into the lower school and are led by Irene Lerner.
The purpose of the program is to augment and supplement the science and math curriculum where possible, so that all disciplines are integrated in a meaningful and relevant way, and so that students grow in their confidence and interest in the STEM fields. STEM builds on the ideas of design-thinking and creativity as it teaches the students to think critically, to make mistakes, to learn from those mistakes, and then to solve real-world problems.
So far, STEM projects completed by SDJA lower school students have included building an animal habitat in second grade, learning about buoyancy while building and racing boats in fourth grade, and designing and flying kites in third grade. Additionally, students in grades 3, 4 and 5 were taught a computer coding language called “Scratch” that was developed by MIT.
After-school STEM opportunities are also available to all interested students.

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About SDJA:
A pluralistic preschool –12th grade school serving the Jewish community, our mission is to further academic excellence, social responsibility, and active Jewish living.
At San Diego Jewish Academy we:
• Inspire our students to embrace creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial thinking in their learning
• Instill in our students a deep understanding and respect for the values and insights of Jewish tradition and a love of Israel that will lead them to live lives of Jewish meaning
• Prepare our graduates to be leaders of integrity, social responsibility, and architects of change

For more information about San Diego Jewish Academy, visit www.sdja.com